Vallejo makes it tougher to get water service in bid to stop squatters

Vallejo Code Enforcement manager Nimat Shakoor-Grantham describes the development of new procedures in the city, based on a program already in use in Antioch, to control illegal squatters by more stringently regulating the process of getting water service turned on and off. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald)

To help address Vallejo's serious issue with squatters taking over abandoned homes, city officials have made it more difficult to get water service, with new procedures that kicked in this month.

The new process includes investigating water service applicants to ensure they're legally in the dwelling, Public Works Director David Kleinschmidt said. Service is denied if they're not and it's illegal to live in a dwelling that has no running water, he said.

Kleinschmidt said the stricter rules improve the city's screening process to reduce the number of people getting water service without a property owner's permission. Proof of ownership or a rental agreement is now required, and follow-up is done to verify the documents' validity, he said.

"That's what's been escaping us," Kleinschmidt said. "We're attempting to verify that the person trying to get water service has the right to be on the property, and squatters are a big part of that."

If the applicant's information can't be verified, service is denied. If the squatters stay anyway, a building official comes in, declares the residence uninhabitable, and possibly cites it, red-tags it and boards it up.

Squatters can be a source of blight by not caring for homes, have been known to start fires to cook or keep warm and sometimes carry out criminal activities.

No one from the city water department immediately returned calls seeking information on if or how many water service applicants have been denied on this basis since Feb. 1.

"There's a fine line where the Police Department has to have proper reasons to go on to the property and address trespassers," Kleinschmidt said. "I know that step one is to deem the building unsafe and tag it."

Information on the new process is on the city's website.

"I've heard it said at City Hall that some people come in and establish water service when they're not the legitimate renters on the property," City Manager Dan Keen said. "I know it's an issue we've been struggling with. If they can get the water on, they can occupy the home for quite a while. Our challenge with these squatters is sometimes they'll wave a document they say is a rental agreement. This is one way to tackle that. The city attorney's office is working on other ways."

Code Enforcement Manager Nimat Shakoor-Grantham said the new process is similar to Antioch's, a fact she researched and passed up the chain of command "many months ago." Until now, often all it took for someone to get water service in Vallejo, was to pay any unpaid bills, she said.

"Squatters have been known to fabricate lease agreements and once they're in, it's hard to get them out, while they're paying the water bill" she said. "I've seen people pull out a huge roll of money to pay back-owed water bills, which tells me that in doing illegal activities, money is no object. Having their name on a water bill lends them legitimacy."

Just because one can't legally live in a place if the water's shut off, doesn't mean some people don't do it, anyway, Shakoor-Grantham said.

"We find places all the time, where feces is piled up two feet out of the toilet," she said. "We're trying to find the link between health and safety codes and getting the police to act."

Contact staff writer Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824 or rzrihen@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at RachelVTH.